Jacint Verdaguer, national poet of Catalonia

Jacint Verdaguer’s vast and rich work makes him the most outstanding Catalan writer of the Romantic period, and even of the whole nineteenth century. Doubtless, he is also one of the classic Catalans of all times. His work was not only of anintrinsic and lasting quality, it was also of historical importance.Verdaguer brought with him the consolidation of the literary language of the Renaixen a1 which was the foundation for later literature. Furthermore, his prestige as a writer resulted in a measure of international recognition for the Catalan literature of the Renaixen a. Interest in the figure of Verdaguer often related with the polemics around his biography, an interest that is still alive nowadays. This interest hascreated a field of its own, the verdaguerisme, that in the last thirty years has turned him into a privileged subject for study in the world of Catalan philology, with doctoral dissertations, critical editions and essays, besides a specialised academic review (Anuari Verdaguer) and a scientific society devoted to him (Societat Verdaguer).